Welcome Lisa!   I so understand the questions that come up! I have myriad isses- chronic pain from a rollover car accident that jacked up my neck & back, FM, CF, RA or IA depending on what the bloodwork shows at the time (wish the docs could make up their minds). And I don't "look" sick!   Regardless of where you are with finances, the little things can make a BIG difference. If I don't stretch daily, I have trouble walking, so while I would love to take some classes to learn more on yoga or Tai Chi (my personal fav), my budge runs toward borrowing a video from the library.   My favorite alternitive treatment is massage therapy. I'm lucky (while I have insurance) that it covers it, so it's affordable with just my co-pay.   Another item to think about is the pain issue. If your doc is not comfortable prescribing, ask for a referral to a pain management specialist. I did and while I fought taking paid meds, I realized after several years of trial & error that I was making my self worse by not taking things as directed. Once the pain was under control (a 6 instead 9 with spikes), I was able to live again, not just exist from day to day. Lene has some amazing posts that refer to this.   Also, from a work perspective, you might want to check into FMLA. This protects your job to a certain degree in that it can cover absences, dr appts. or specific working accomodations (ergo set up, breaks,etc.). But read up carefully so you know what is covered and that your doc is very specific. HR generally hates open ended accomodations and will question this.   And, last but not least, is sleep! I sleep in 3 hour increments now but it used to be 1-2 if I was lucky. I was fortunate to get a TempurPedic mattress which helped dramatically.   This is a wonderful site as you've found and there are great resources here to help. Whether it's RA or IA, it can be overwhelming but it is manageable!   Dana